


Tetrad

by BountyHuntress16



Series: State of the Union(s) [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-24 00:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2560967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BountyHuntress16/pseuds/BountyHuntress16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four conversations that happened before they all became a thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tetrad

I.

“You like him.” Natasha stoops to tie her shoe. Steve runs in place beside her. He stares at his feet. Not at her strong shoulders or at the handsome man running ahead of them.

Not that it helps. She already caught him gazing at Sam’s back.

“Want me to ask him out for you?” Natasha smirks at him. It doesn’t help the heat in his cheeks.

“No,” says Steve. “No. Sam and I are friends.”

“That’s the best place to begin.” She stands and bumps her hip against his. He’s learned that she likes these little points of contact if she’s the one initiating them. Steve likes them too.

Sam pivots and runs backwards down the path. He cups his hands around his mouth. “Coming, slowpokes?”

“Go get him,” says Natasha. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

Steve sprints ahead. To stop Nat from making good on her promise. And to see the cute frown on Sam’s face when he laps him again.

* * *

II. 

“You like him.”

Natasha looks up. Her hands reassemble the cleaned gun without thought. The ritual of maintaining their small armory and the smell of gun oil relaxes her. Being alone in a room with the Winter Soldier and a full arsenal shouldn’t. He’s the one who chose this chore as his own.

The first thing he’s done to discomfort her is to say that.

“Hm?”

Bucky nods at the door. Steve had been there moments ago, asking if they were okay with leftover chili for dinner. As soon as they were done with their inventory, of course.

“He’s not so bad.” She lets herself smile. “Sometimes it’s helpful to have a good guy on your team.”

“Not what I meant.” One corner of his mouth tugs upward. She memorizes the line of his lips. It’s something to hold onto—it might be a long time before she sees it again. “I have some advice.”

“If I wanted to go after him, I could handle it.”

“Are you?”

“No.” Steve is easy to understand. Would be complicated as hell to start a relationship with. “Stop smiling, Barnes.”

He doesn’t. She doesn’t mind.

* * *

III. 

“You like her.”

“…I asked about Te-bow-ing.”

Sam laughs and the sound is rich. Warm. Everything about Sam is warm. Bucky can’t relax. Not really. But some things like checking the weapons with Natasha or curling up on Sam’s couch against Sam’s side eases things.

“It’s when you do this…” Sam demonstrates, kneeling on the ground with his fist to his forehead. “When you make a touchdown. There was a newcomer on the Broncos named Tim Tebow who did it all the time. Had a good year, you really don’t hear anything about him now.”

Sam returns to the couch and steals the last nacho. Bucky lets him. In five to seven minutes Natasha will come back with another batch. Sam washes it down with a pull from his non-alcoholic St. Pauli Girl. The cheeky mascot on the bottle winks at them. “You should take her out for coffee.”

“You make it sound easy.”

“It can be easy. Just a guy asking a girl for a hot beverage. There’s at least five places per block to choose from.”

There is a quiet place he likes to go. Everyone there goes to do homework or write novels or sketch in the darkened room. No one ever bothers him so it's safe. The walls are covered with artwork and album covers. The coffee is dark and rich. Would she like it?

There once was a person named Bucky who could figure out a girl within five minutes of meeting her. There’s now a person named Bucky who can’t remember how the first Bucky did it.

“Faint heart never won fair lady,” Sam says before the commercials stop, the football game resumes and Natasha returns with nachos.

Does she even like coffee?

* * *

IV.

“You like him.”

Sam marks on the map in pencil where they’ll rendevouz with Bucky. “We’re all friends, aren’t we?”

Steve fidgets in his seat. Crosses his arms, sets them down, crosses them again. Sam keeps his head down to hide his smile.

“I meant like as in…”

“As in ‘like like’?” Sam wonders if Steve has heard that term. It fits too well. Bucky puts flutters in his stomach like he’s a pre-teen with his first crush.

“Yeah. Like like.” Steve laughs. There’s that sense of humor peeking out. “Do you?”

“It’s as good a name for it as anything. Sam looks up at the wrong(right?) time. The mix of sadness and resignation in Steve’s eyes could kill a man. Sam is brought back to the day Steve appeared on his doorstep needing a place to hide, a helpless look in his eyes. So different from Natasha’s that day—blank, ready to leave if he refused them.

Maybe someday Steve will figure out the power he has in that puppy-dog expression.

“I think that he likes you too.” Steve clears his throat. “Be good to him, okay?”

He can’t tease Steve when he looks like that. “He’s not the only one I ‘like like’.”

“He’s not?” The line between Steve’s brows sharpens. He’s reviewing the possibilities. Sam circles another point on the map—where the three of them will meet Natasha once she’s completed her part of the mission.

When Steve still doesn’t catch on, Sam decides to help him out. “Have dinner with me tomorrow.”

Steve turns red. First time he’s seen Captain America blush. He likes it.

“Dinner,” Steve echoes. “Like a…date?”

“Not just like. An actual date. Interested?”

“Yeah.” Steve smiles. Beautifully. “Yeah, I am.”

 


End file.
